The Boneyard

Tucson is home to the Pima Air and Space Museum, located just off the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. This particular Air Force Base has an airplane storage, maintenance, and regeneration facility for military planes. This facility is commonly known as "The Boneyard" and it holds about 4500 airplanes. We visited the museum and boneyard today for our Monday fun.
Nicco ran merrily around the hangar pointing and ooh-ing and ah-ing, as is his habit when in the presence of many airplanes. He ran up to this information station and said "Wait right there mommy, I have to tell you the instructions first. The instructions say 'this is the coolest airplane the first one in the world.'"

He liked this colorful little airplane.

Checking out the cockpit and weapons on the plane with Daddy.

Cute little toy plane kids could "fly" by moving the flaps and steering.

In the control tower, listening to recorded pilot communications.

In the tower with Daddy, giving instructions to me in the plane across the hangar. I pretended I could actually hear him. Big mistake. He was very disappointed that he could not hear his Daddy giving instructions from the tower when he was in the plane.

Lighting up the runway for the planes to land.

Emergency!

Playing with all the buttons in the cockpit.

Co-piloting with Daddy. He would have stayed in this cockpit all day. It surprised me a little that he suddenly preferred the buttons to looking at the multitude of planes all around.

We could see this plane from the road as we drove up. Nicco stretched his neck to get a better view out his window and exclaimed "Holy cow! That one is really frickin' HUGE!" and when we saw it up close he said "See, I told ya."

After we wandered around the museum for about an hour, we got on the bus to go to the Boneyard. Here is Nicco checking out the rows and rows of airplanes through the window.

A Tomcat, the planes that the Top Gun pilots fly.

I don't remember what this one is, but it was one of my better shots with lots of planes in the background.

More airplanes. The tour guide told us a little bit about each type of plane, its particular uses and capabilities, how long it has been in service, whether or not it is still being used. There were some interesting facts and stories, and we enjoyed hearing about the military history as we drove up and down the aisles of planes. I liked hearing about the "clandestine air force," the guys who fly in civilian clothes and don't file flight plans, the planes that fly in at night and out at night so no one knows when they arrived or left. So cool!

This is where airplanes come to die and donate their parts for future generations of planes. One plane that was purchased for $450,000 provided a million dollar fan engine. So they actually got a good deal on that. On our way back to the museum, the tour guide said something about how "so many of the airplanes come here for storage, then get thrown out. Which is what will happen to us with our new health care." Ah, freedom of speech, how I love you!

Although he was hot and tired, Nicco asked if we could come back here every day. I guess he had a good day!